2010

2010 began like any other year.  365 days ago I was working a dead-end job for a dead-end boss.  Monkey Joe’s.  “Manager.”  That’s what they called me.  I should have known better.  I was the fifth or sixth “manager” in the past year.  But the money was too good to pass up, relatively speaking.  I quit two days later after less than a month on the job.  Starbucks was gracious enough to take me back.  However, it was another dead end.  No future there.  Sure the weekly pound of coffee beans was great, but you can’t build a life on that.  I was making payments on a house that I didn’t actually live in.  Nonexistent money down the proverbial drain.  No goals.  Just floating along.  Waiting.  I didn’t know exactly what I was waiting on.  A good idea?  The lightbulb over my head?  The thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life?  All of the above actually.

A week or so earlier I had given Jessica a world map and a large coffee table book, 20 Wonders of the World, for Christmas.  It was our adventure book.  One of the many signs that confirmed she was the one for me was when we would pass the evening plotting our course around the world on the map pinned up on her bedroom wall.  There was a brightness in our eyes.  We were dreaming together.  But Starbucks and Chick-fil-A were always waiting for us the next day.  It was steady work.  Steady paychecks.  Travel is expensive.  Just out of reach.  

Fast forward to April.  I’m sitting in an attorney’s office closing on the sale of my house.  A burden gone.  Finally.  On top of that I’ve now got a little cash in my pocket.  The ‘wise’ thing would have been to pay off a few debts.  I considered it.  But I found a wiser way to use the money.  I invested it.  In myself.  The debts could wait.  They always do.  I registered for a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification course at Greenville Tech.  The month-long intensive course began in the summer.  And intensive it was.  My week generally consisted of going to work at 5:30am and then going straight to class at 11am.  Some nights I would have class until 6pm and then go straight to work to close down the store.  It was a long month.  But after so much seemingly wasted time I had a goal that pushed me along.

    

August.  I made one of the smartest decisions of my life.  And she said yes.

We planned the most perfect wedding in 27 days.  I wouldn’t have done things any differently.  Our families and closest friends were there.  It was perfect.  At the end when we were introduced as husband and wife, we exited the ceremony to the sound of Robert, Jimmy, John Paul, and Bonzo doing a live version of Rock and Roll. 

Exactly two weeks later Jessica and I were hugging our families in terminal A at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.  Korea was just 22 hours away.  Adventure was out there.  And it was ours for the taking.